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Bradley tank (2014 in Lithuania)
Photo: AFP/AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / US Army Army
That says Kyiv
The Ukrainian military has reported another successful attack against Russia's army.
In the occupied city of Tokmak in the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia, 80 Russian soldiers were killed or injured in an offensive on Tuesday, the General Staff in Kyiv said on Wednesday.
The information could not be independently verified.
Both warring parties often speak of high losses on the opposing side.
A spokesman for the Russian occupation administration of Zaporizhia Vladimir Rogov claimed that the Ukrainian attack was aimed at the Tokmak district hospital.
A military doctor and several patients were killed.
In addition, pictures of a badly damaged building were shown.
However, there was no independent confirmation of the information.
For days, Ukraine has repeatedly reported massive blows to Russian troop concentrations.
According to Kiev sources, 400 enemy soldiers were killed in an attack on a Russian military barracks in Makiivka in the Donetsk region alone, and 500 in another offensive in the village of Chulakivka in Kherson.
Moscow, on the other hand, has so far only admitted at least 89 deaths in its own ranks with a view to the Ukrainian artillery strikes on New Year's Eve.
According to Ukrainian intelligence information, Moscow is to bring more troops to occupied Crimea.
Russia would move new units to northern Crimea, Andriy Chernyak, a spokesman for Ukraine's Intelligence Directorate, said in a statement.
Fortifications would continue to be built there and in the occupied part of the Cherson region, it said.
Russia would "currently make every effort to maintain the so-called land corridor to Crimea," Chernyak said.
The Ukraine will, however, "attack the positions of the Russians in the entire occupied territory."
Only in the morning did Russia report that it had allegedly destroyed two drones over the sea, which were therefore targeting a military airfield on the peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saw the announced delivery of French reconnaissance tanks as an important signal to other Western countries as well.
"France is taking defense support to Ukraine to a new level and I thank President (Emmanuel) Macron for this leadership," said Zelenskyy in his video address on Wednesday evening.
"This sends a clear signal to all our partners: There is no rational reason why western-style tanks have not yet been delivered to Ukraine."
Macron promised Zelenskyy the delivery of the AMX-10 RC tank on Wednesday.
The wheeled armored vehicle with a large cannon is primarily used for reconnaissance.
It is still unclear how many tanks France intends to hand over to Ukraine and by when.
The Élysée Palace said these were the first Western-style main battle tanks to be delivered to the Ukrainian armed forces.
However, Ukraine has received other Western tanks in the past, albeit more of the troop carrier type, like the US model M113 – a smaller tracked vehicle.
Germany has also provided Ukraine with 30 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks.
Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia, has not yet received a full-fledged Western main battle tank such as the French Leclerc model or the German Leopard.
Moscow says so
The former head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, says he sent shrapnel from a French howitzer to French President Macron.
Rogozin was injured by this shrapnel in December in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
The former Roskosmos chief said on Wednesday he had sent the fragment in a letter to the French ambassador in Moscow, Pierre Levy, with a request that it be forwarded to Macron.
Rogozin published the letter accompanying the shrapnel in the Telegram online service.
"In the envelope enclosed with my letter you see a fragment of a shell from a French 155mm artillery unit Caesar," he wrote.
"It went through my right shoulder and lodged in the fifth cervical vertebra, just a millimeter from killing or invalidating me."
The French embassy in Moscow did not want to comment on the letter when asked by the AFP news agency.
Rogozin is a former Russian vice prime minister and a supporter of the military operation in Ukraine.
He said he was hit by shrapnel during a "work meeting" in a hotel restaurant in Donetsk in December.
International Reactions
The US government is considering supplying Bradley infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine.
According to the US military, the armored tracked vehicles usually have a cannon, a machine gun and armor-piercing missiles.
US President Joe Biden said yes to a reporter's question on Wednesday whether the government was considering supplying the armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.
He gave no details.
For the time being, it remained unclear which model variant of the Bradley would be suitable for Kyiv.
Ukraine has long been asking its allies for Western-style battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
Germany has so far refused to provide main battle tanks – including the German Leopard – for Ukraine.
The US is already supplying Ukraine with various heavy weapons systems, including the Himar-type multiple rocket launchers, which sometimes inflict heavy casualties on Russian forces.
During the visit of the Ukrainian President Zelenskyj to Washington shortly before Christmas, Biden also promised to supply Ukraine with a Patriot air defense system.
jok/dpa/Reuters